The Twenty-Three by Linwood Barclay

Val Penny ♦ March 12, 2019 ♦ Leave a comment

The Twenty-Three is the last book in Linwood Barclay’s Promise Falls Trilogy and I really wanted to like it. I wanted to like it because the author is a great guy and I have enjoyed his books previously. Also I wanted to like it, because it always makes the review easier – and I enjoyed most of this novel.

The Twenty-Three starts with a normal morning in Promise Falls: predictably things start to go wrong rapidly. Vast numbers of people fall ill with no explanation, people are found dead or dying in or near their homes and the hospital and emergency services are stretched to their limits.

Detective Barry Duckworth is already investigating two murders when another young woman is found dead on the campus of Thackery College too. A strange car is noticed near the student halls at a critical time and a local jogger may be able to help identify the driver. Barry starts to wonder if the cause of the sickness and deaths of the townsfolk and the new attack on the campus are connected to the mysterious incidents in Promise Falls involving the number twenty-three.

This book cleverly weaves the various strands of the stories started in Broken Promise and Far from True. The twists that lead to the conclusion are marvellous. however, what I did not like was the rather clumsy way the reader is reminded of some of the back stories. I found that disappointing.

As with any trilogy, I strongly recommend you start at the beginning! Is it Linwood Barclay’s best book? Not by a country mile.

The Author

Linwood Barclay is the #1 internationally bestselling author of seventeen novels for adults, including No Time for Goodbye, Trust Your Eyes and, most recently, A Noise Downstairs. He has also written two novels for children and screenplays.

Three of those seventeen novels comprise the epic Promise Falls trilogy: Broken Promise, Far From True, and The Twenty-Three. His two novels for children – Chase and Escape – star a computer-enhanced dog named Chipper who’s on the run from the evil organization that turned him into a super-pup.
Barclay’s 2011 thriller, The Accident, has been turned into the six-part television series L’Accident in France, and he adapted his novel Never Saw it Coming for the movie, directed by Gail Harvey and starring Eric Roberts and Emily Hampshire. Several of his other books either have been, or still are, in development for TV and film.

Val Penny